Machine for wire-forming and severing



Feb. 18, 1958' R. A. REHBERG MACHINE FOR WIRE-FORMING AND SEVERING Filed Au 10, 1954 I5 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR IF/(Hfl/EP 9. lam/55m Feb. 18, 1958 R; A. REHBERG 2,823,747

MACHINE FOR WIRE-FORMING AND SEVERING Filed Aug. 10. 1954 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Feb. 18, 1958 R. A. REHBERG MACHINE FOR WIRE-FORMING AND SEVERING Filed Aug. 10, 1954 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 J z7:- 6'. l INVENTOR. E P/(H/WED 0 kzwaeeq:

Arrow/[ 4 United States Patent MACHINE FOR WIRE-FORMING AND SEVERING Richard A. Rehberg, Livingston, N. J., assignor to Westinghouse Electric Corporation, East Pittsburgh, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Application August 10, 1954, Serial No. 448,866

4 Claims. (Cl. 164-48) This invention relates to wire forming and severing machines, and more particularly to a machine for the manufacture of lead-in wires, known in the trade as spuds, for use in lamps and other electrical devices of similar character.

It is common practice in the lamp and electronic tube industry to provide lead-in wires, a section of each of which is of special composition known as dumet wire, the feature of which is its ability to form a vacuum-tight seal where passing through a press of glass therearound. Only a short section of the dumet wire is needed, and it is butt welded at its end to another piece of wire, for instance, tungsten, molybdenum, nickel, copper, or nickelplated iron, which constitutes the balance of the lead-in wire within the lamp or the like and to which the electrode, such as a filament, is subsequently attached. These spuds, comprising said butt-welded sections, have heretofore been made singly by bringing ends of long lengths of the two types of wire together and butt-welding with an electric arc thereat, each wire being cut at an appropriate distance from the weld. Output is limited to the speed with which the two wires can be fed, cut and welded. According to the present invention, the primary object is Without wasting material, to double the output of a machine with the same speed of feed of the wires as heretofore used.

More specifically, the invention provides a machine wherein composite leads are first made of double length and cut in half to thereby make two spuds at the same speed of prior art manufacture of only one.

An object of my invention is to produce the two twopiece leads or spuds during every machine cycle of a three-piece percussive welder.

Another object of my invention is to add a unit or auxiliary machine to cut through the center of a double length of metal wire of a three-piece lead, to thereby obtain, without waste, two finished leads, each consisting of two different types of wire.

A further object of my invention is to hold the intermediate or dumet wire section of a three-piece welded lead under pressure, and then shear it in half by a star wheel cutter operated by a bifurcated lever, to thereby produce two finished leads.

An additional object of my invention is to operate a bifurcated lever mounted on a shaft on the end of which is a roller carrying crank operated by a cam on a shaft driven by bevel gears, for the purpose of operating a movable cutter unit such as hereinabove described.

Another object of my invention is to handle the leads cut, in accordance with the foregoing description, in different manners in accordance with their lengths, the long leads after being cut being received in a trough, while the short leads are dropped through detachable chute tubes by use of a bridge in a receiving chute.

A still further object of my invention is to provide turrets for receiving such short leads as they emerge from the tubes, said turrets each holding a series of packing boxes and being locked into position by a key,

but being turnable upon depression thereof to place an empty box in position for receiving such leads.

Other objects of the invention will appear to persons skilled in the art to which it appertains as the description proceeds, both by direct recitation thereof and by inference from the context.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, in which like numerals of reference indicate similar parts throughout the several views:

Figure 1 is a plan of the cutter unit and its driving means associated with a three-piece percussive welding machine, which latter machine is shown in dotted lines, the cutter unit being shown with detachable chute tubes and corresponding turrets, used primarily when cutting short leads.

Figure 2 is a side elevational view of a work piece or three piece lead produced by a welding machine and which is to be cut into two halves by the cutter unit embodying my invention, said work piece being shown to a larger scale, the solid line view representing short leads and the dot-dash view representing long leads.

Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2, but showing the line at which the work piece or lead is to be cut in half.

Figure 4 is a vertical sectional view on the line IV-IV of Figure 1, in the direction of the arrows, a collecting tray, which may be substituted for the chute tubes when cutting long leads, also being shown.

Figure 5 is a fragmentary plan of the cutter and tray for collecting long leads when such are being manufactured, said view being similar to a part of Fig. 1 and shown to the same scale, but with some parts being replaced and repositioned in accordance with the length of the leads being manufactured.

Figure 6 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view of the cutter mechanism generally corresponding with, but to a larger scale than Figure 4.

Figure 7 is a horizontal sectional view of the cutting mechanism and some associated parts on the line VII-VII of Fig. 6 in the direction of the arrows.

Figure 8 is a vertical sectional view of the stationary section of the cutter mechanism, on the line VIII-VIII of Fig. 6, in the direction of the arrows.

Figure 9 is a vertical sectional view of the reciprocating section of the cutting mechanism, on the line IX-IX of Fig. 6, in the direction of the arrows.

Inasmuch as butt-welding of one wire to another has long been practiced in the art, the drawings have not been complicated by inclusion of that part of the machine mechanism. The omitted structure feeds two wires toward each other in axial alignment, but in. this instance they are spaced longitudinally from each other a sutficient distance to admit transverse introduction of a third piece of wire, pre-cut to length, to axially align with and fill the gap between the first mentioned wires. An electric weld is performed at the butt junctions of the third piece of wire with the first two. Said first two wires are fed to their stated locations from reels and are suitably retained and cut from the reel stock, so that after the Welds have been performed a compound length of work-piece 10 results as shown in Fig. 2, comprising wire end pieces 11 having a dumet or intermediate wire piece 12 as an integral part of the work piece. The wire for the end pieces 11 may be of some other suitable material, such as tungsten, molybdenum, or other suitable metal.

In the copending application of Robet T. Cameron, S. N. 390,601, filed November 6, 1953, and owned by the assignee of the present application, there is described and claimed a machine and method for Wire forming and severing, in which the center section of the dumet portion of a three-piece lead is cut out and wasted in the process of making two two-piece leads.

In accordance with the present inventipn, which is an improvement over that of said Cameron application, the dumet center or intermediate section is cut in half without any loss in material. For that purpose, I add to the regular three-piece percussive welder a unit which enables me to cut through the 'center of a double-length metal wire, which may be formed of dumet, thereby obtaining two finished leads, each lead consisting of wires of two different types.

From the right and left wire feeding mechanism of the standard percussive welding machine, wires of desired composition, such as nickel, copper, or nickel-plated iron, are fed. A double length of dumet wire is transferred to the welding position between the end Wires and welded in the machine, in accordance with practice known in the art.

As the barrel on the machine indexes it carries the welded lead between two end plates to cutters by means of a lever, and a pressure plate is applied against the dumet wire to hold it against the stationary cutter. This lever is actuated by a shaft carrying a crank and roller, by means of a cam on an operating shaft. The cam and its shaft may be journalled in bearings permanently mounted on the machine bed, and rotated by means of gears. The entire cutting unit may be detachable from the machine, in accordance with the described embodiment, by removing four screws in a supporting bracket. In order to get perfect alignment, there will be a micrometer adjustment of the cutter brought about by means of screws.

I propose to have long leads, after being cut, slide down a chute into a trough from which they may be removed by an attendant for packing. Short leads, however, would tend to turn in such a chute. I, therefore, propose to guide such short leads so that the heavy ends would always drop first through tubes, from which they emerge and drop in packing boxes placed in a turret locked in position by means of a key. The turret is resiliently mounted and may be indexed after having been pushed down by an attendant. I also provide a vibrator attached to the turret inorder to properly stack the leads in packing boxes held thereon. A torsion pin holding the turret is formed to provide for the proper amplitude of vibration for stacking the leads.

In the specific embodiment of the invention illustrated in the drawings, twoparallel and axially aligned discs 15 or 15a (Fig. 5) are provided on a shaft 16. The size and positioning of the discs 15 for making short leads is represented in Figs. 1, 7 and '8, while that of the discs 15a for making long leads is'represented in Fig. 5. The shaft, and therefore the discs, are driven by suitable 'drive mechanism (not shown) with an intermittent or indexing movement. For brevity said discs maybe considered together as a rotor. 'These discs 15 or 15a each have a plurality of transverse peripheral wire-receiving notches 17, one for each indexed station. The feeding-in, cutting and welding of the wires is performed at the location of aligned notches of the two discs at substantially'the uppermost or 'zenithalposition thereof, thereby forming a work piece extending across from disc to disc and carried thereby. The discs then index forwardly to the next stationso again the notches arriving at the zenithal'position receivethe wires from the reel, and are cut and welded, and so on repetitiously as the machine operates. The forward portions of the discs have peripheral contact with arcuate shoes 18 which keep the work-pieces from dislodgement from the notches at the position of introduction of the wires until time for discharge.

A primary feature of the present invention is the severing of the workpiece 1'0 midway of its length to obtain two spuds 19, 19 of equal length and 'each having an equal length of dumet wire 12 at an end thereof (see Fig. 3). The machine, therefore, at the same rate of operation, forms without waste two spuds at a time, instead of just one as done in the prior art where two wires only have been fed and no intermediate cutting performed.

The severing mechanism of the present invention comprises essentially a cutter '20 (Figs. 1, 4, 5, 6 and 7) rotatable about a fixed pivot 21 threaded into the cutter bracket 13, rigid with the frame of the machine, so as to allow for rotation to present a fresh cutting edge, but when used is held in fixed position by a set screw 22. There is a co-operating movable cutter 23 arranged to perform the cutting operation while the rotor is stationary and a work-piece located at one of the indexed stations and at the right hand side or front of the discs, as viewed in Figs. 1, 4, 5, 6 and 7. The movable cutter 23 may be considered as a star wheel, that is, it has a series of notches 24 suitably sharpened so that a wire 12 may be received therein when severed against the relatively-fixed cutter 20. This movable cutter 23 is mounted on a slide 25 by means of a pivot pin 26, threadably secured to said slide. Said pin 26 allows turning of the cutter as desired to present fresh cutting notches 24, but is tightenable to prevent normal turning movement thereof.

The slide 25 carries therein a reciprocable tube 28, adjustably held by means of a set screw 29 and biased to the left, as viewed in Fig. 7 by means of a coil spring 31 carried on said screw and acting between said tube and an end member bridging the top and bottom angular arms of the carrying block 14, fixed to the frame of the machine, and connected thereto by screws or the like. This tube 28, has an extension or nose 27 which resiliently presses the center section 12 of the wire against the fixed cutter 20 during operation of the movable cutter 23.

Both the movable cutter 23 and the tube 28 are operated by means of a bifurcated lever 32 held fixed on shaft 33 in adjusted position by means of a tightening screw 34. The bifurcations 35 and 36 of said lever 32 lie on opposite sides of a stud 37 (Fig. 7) projecting from a side of the slide 25, which is suitably guided in block 38, as between one side wall and angular top and bottom arms of the block 14. The operating shaft 33 is provided with a bell crank 33 (see Fig. 4), carrying a roller 41 on one arm which is biased into engagement with a cam 42 carried by a drive shaft 43, mounted in bearings 44 and 45, by a coil spring acting on the other arm of said bell crank. The other end of "the shaft 43 has a bevel gear 46 (see Fig. l), meshing with a bevel gear 47 on a shaft 48, driven in any desired manner as by carrying a spur gear 49meshing with a driving spur gear 51.

In order to insure that the three-piece leads are properly centered while carried by the discs 15, said leads, as the discs turn, pass between guiding plates 52 (see Figs. 7 and 8), adjustably mounted in any desired manner as by means of a set screw 54 received in a slot 55 in an angular extension 56 and, in turn, threaded into the frame of the machine. By virtue of this construction, the three-piece leads are centered upon reaching the cutters so that the cutter divides said leads into two equal portions, each of which has a dumet section 12 and a section 11 of other, and, in this instance, larger material.

After being severed upon oscillation by the movable cutter 23 shearing along the side of the fixed cutter 20, the two halves of'a lead drop on opposite sides of a dividing bridge 57 (Figs. 1 and 6). If the machine is set up for cutting short leads, each half is guided to one of the guiding'tube's 58 and '59, travelling as viewed particularly in Figure 4 to a packing box 61, as one of a series carried by one of the turrets 62. Each turret 62 is resilient carried by means of a coil spring 63 in a housing 64, from which upstands a housing cup 65 carrying a coil spring 63 and telescoped in the downward opening turret cup 66. Each unit 62 is held assembled by an upper female screw into which is threaded a lower male screw 70. The screw 60 also desirably receives a male locking screw 80. The turret is locked against turning by means of a key 67 held in the housing-64 by screws 68. Each housing also carries a bracket 69 holding the lower end of one of the tubes 58 or 59, as byzmeans of a set screw 71.

Each housing 64 also is oscillatingly mounted on a pivot pin 72, held :in position by means ofa set screw 73,

" and provided with 'a laterally extending arm 74. Each arm 74 is connected, as by means of a pin 75, to the armature 76 of a vibrator solenoid 77, so that during operation the cut sections of wire in the packing boxes 61 may be vibrated into compacted or stacked position, aided by the diagonal positioning of the preferably hollow cylindrical containers or boxes 61.

If, however, the machine is set up for cutting long spuds, then the discs are not only ditferent and diiferently spaced, but the tubes 5-8 and 59 are detached, as by pulling them and their sockets 78 and 79 (Figs. 1 and 4-) and out away from the opposite sides of the dividing bridge 57. The wires, after being out, are then, instead, received in a tray 81 (Fig. 5), from which they are removed by an attendant after a sufiicient quantity has accumulated.

Operation In accordance with conventional practice, wires are fed to welding position at the top of the carrying discs (Figs. 1, 7 and 8) (or 15a, Fig. 5) where they are welded while in notches 17 therein. After being so welded, the discs are indexed two spaces clockwise, as viewed in Fig. 6, or to the position in the horizontal axial plane of said discs. Reaching this position, the dumet or intermdeiate section 12 is resiliently held against the fixed cutter 20 by counter-clockwise turning of the shaft 33, to not only resiliently move the holder tube 28, to the left, as Viewed in Fig. 7, but also to positively move the cutter 23 to the left, relatively to the holder tube by cutter pivot pin 26 slipping in the slot 84 in said tube to sever the wire against the fixed cutter 20.

Accurate cutter adjustment is effected by screws 82 and 83 (Figs. 1 and 5) engaging opposite ends of the base of the cutter bracket 13. Whereupon the halves, if short and used with the guiding tubes 58 and 59, are transported to the packing boxes 61 on the turrets 62 or, it long, said cut lengths of wire are received in the trays 81. After a pair of boxes have been filled, each turret is desirably pushed down and reindexed to position an empty pair of boxes for filling with spuds.

Although a preferred embodiment has been described, it will be understood that modifications may be made within the spirit and scope of the invention.

I claim:

1. A wire forming and severing machine, comprising parallel axially aligned discs having wire-receiving notches cross-wise of and in the peripheries thereof for receiving and transitionally advancing wire work pieces by rotation of said discs, means for retaining said work pieces in said notches for a part of the rotational orbit of said discs, a fixed cutter and abutment between said discs, holding means for resiliently pressing said work piece-s against said abutment and a second cutter movable with respect to said holding means and adapted to be advanced between said discs and cooperate with said fixed cutter for severing said work pieces between said discs while held in the notches.

2. A wire forming and severing machine, comprising parallel axially aligned discs having Wire-receiving notches cross-wise of and in the peripheries thereof for receiving and transitionally advancing wire work pieces by rotation of said discs, means for retaining said Work pieces in said notches for a part of the rotational orbit of said discs, a fixed cutter and abutment between said discs, holding means for resiliently pressing said Work pieces against said abutment, a second cutter movable with respect to said holding means and adapted to be advanced between said discs and cooperate with said fixed cutter for severing said Work pieces to create two severed ends, and receiving means for said severed ends.

3. A wire forming and severing machine, comprising parallel axially aligned discs having wire-receiving notches cross-wise of and in the peripheries thereof for receiving and transitionally advancing wire work pieces by rotation of said discs, arcuate shoes in contact with said peripheries for retaining said work pieces in said notches for a part of the rotational orbit of said discs, at fixed cutter and abutment between said discs, holding means for resiliently pressing said work pieces against said abutment, a second cutter movable with respect to said holding means and adapted to be advanced between said discs and cooperate with said fixed cutter for severing said work pieces midway their ends without removing a portion of wire while held in the notches.

4. A wire forming and severing machine, comprising parallel axially aligned discs having wire-receiving notches cross-wise of and in the peripheries thereof for receiving and transitionally advancing a Wire work piece by rotation of said discs, means for retaining said work piece in said notches for a part of the rotational orbit of said discs, a fixed cutter and abutment between said discs, holding means for resiliently pressing said work piece against said abutment, a second cutter movable with respect to said holding means and having a cutting stroke substantially on a diameter of said discs and toward a work piece at the part thereof at an edge of said abutment, said second cutter being adapted to be advanced between said discs and cooperate with said fixed cutter for severing said work piece while held in the notches to create two severed ends and means for removal of the severed ends from the notches as said discs rotate beyond said cutters.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,478,683 Stevens Dec. 25, 1923 1,641,222 Foisy Sept. 6, 1927 1,784,966 Johnson Dec. 16, 1930 1,785,513 Cromwell Jan. 6, 1931 1,925,884 Steele Sept. 5, 1933 2,010,220 Cocks Aug. 6, 1935 2,318,483 Harrison May 4, 1943 2,549,519 Peterson 2. Apr. 17, 1951 2,581,960 Kronenwetter Jan. 8, 1952 

